ACCENTUATE the POSITIVE...

I have just filled up my Netflix queue with all the films listed in various "Ten Best Gay Films" lists I found on the web, to the extent that I hadn't seen them already. I am hoping to find some really good ones, somewhere. It's not that they don't exist, but they are harder to find than you would think, given how many of us there are in what Joan Crawford lovingly termed "the industry."

But then, 90% of all art has always been crap; just visit a museum with a large collection from any one period, and that becomes overwhelmingly clear. I found the discovery liberating, myself.

Yes, I do like some gay and gay-themed movies.

I see, looking back over the list, that I might tend to like foreign movies better, maybe just because I like reading subtitles--though I suspect it has more to do with the quality of the scripts. It may also be significant that the ones I like are just Good Movies. That certainly helps make them Good Gay Movies...

Anyway, right off the top there's:

Brokeback Mountain and Midnight Cowboy
[I cried. Who didn't?]
My Beautiful Launderette, The Opposite of Sex, and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
[I laughed. Who didn't?]
Yossi and Jagger and The Bubble
[but then, Eytan Fox has my number...]

Angels in America
As Good As It Gets
Bear Cub [Cachorro]
Bedrooms and Hallways
Before Night Falls
Bent
Billy Elliot
Bound
Brideshead Revisited [and now I know why I liked the first episode best]
Breakfast on Pluto
Burnt Money [Plata Quemada]
Cabaret
La Cage aux Folles I and II [but not III]
The Closet [Le Placard]
Come Undone [Presque Rien]
The Crying Game
The Deep End
[Goran Visnjic is hot--but the movie's about love]
Fire
Gods and Monsters
[script bad, McKellen great, Fraser hot]
Happy Together
A Home at the End of the World
[I have a crush on Colin Farrell: who doesn't?]
Jewel in the Crown
[Way to go, Tim Pigott-Smith!]
Just a Question of Love
[Juste Une Question d'Amour: great French TV movie]
Kinky Boots
Lan Yu
Leather Jacket Love Story
[not a good movie, but...]
L.I.E. [incredible performance by Brian Cox]
Maurice [sort of: the blond guy doesn't do it for me.
Maybe no blonds do...]
Ma Vie en Rose
Naked Lunch
Nico and Dani [sort of]
Notes on a Scandal
Prick Up Your Ears
Strawberry and Chocolate [Fresa y Chocolate]
The Sum of Us [sort of: the homophobic fiancee is the best thing in it]
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Taxi zum Klo [sort of]
Times Have Been Better
[La Ciel sur la Tete: great French TV movie]
Trembling Before G-D
The Wedding Banquet
Wilde
A Year Without Love [Un Año sin Amor]


Recommended by some, but truly in the 90% Club:

Alexander [in spite of my CF problem, above]
Another Gay Movie [another horror story]
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
The Birdcage [why can't people let well enough alone?]
Formula 17 [talk about formula!]
In and Out [actually, anything even remotely connected to Paul Rudnick]
I Think I Do [just not quite there]
Jeffrey [the play's fault, though]
Lost Language of Cranes [someone forgot that David Leavitt's book is funny]
Love! Valor! Compassion! [see "Jeffrey," above]
Priest [I've generally had it with gay movies that need to make almost all straights look bad so the hero looks good...]
Querelle [sorry, Rainer: too much art -- might be Genet's problem, though]
Sebastiane [sorry, Derek: too much art --and it's definitely your problem]
Trick [Campbell and Pitoc are fine; the script and Tori Spelling are offputting]
Victor, Victoria [almost there, but it tries too hard]

Well, I'm sorry, but why do people say these movies are great?
They're not. Are we that desperate?
C